TRU Library Book Displays

The Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at the American Philosophical Society brought together this volume of historical and contemporary case studies highlighting the importance of archival materials for the revitalization of Indigenous languages. Essays written by archivists, historians, anthropologists, knowledge-keepers, and museum professionals, cover topics critical to language revitalization work; they tackle long-standing debates about ownership, access, and control of Indigenous materials stored in repositories; and they suggest strategies for how to decolonize collections in the service of community-based priorities. Together these essays reveal the power of collaboration for breathing new life into historical documents.

This book presents a collection of 150 archaeological and ethnographic objects produced by Canada's First Peoples - including some that are roughly 12,000 years old - that represent spectacular expressions of creativity and ingenuity. These unique and priceless items embody the rich diversity of skills and materials used by Canadian Inuit, First Nations, and Métis in both ancient and modern times. This collection focuses on items made by people in four regions across Canada: the farmers of the Great Lakes, the hunters and warriors of the Great Plains, the wealthy Salmon People of costal British Columbia, and the people of Canada's harshest environments, the Arctic and Boreal Forest.

Music historian Craig Harris explores more than five hundred years of Indigenous history, religion, and cultural evolution. More than powwow drums and wooden flutes, Indigenous music intersects with rock, blues, jazz, folk music, reggae, hip-hop, classical music, and more. Combining deep research with personal stories by nearly four dozen award-winning Indigenous musicians, Harris offers an eye-opening look at the growth of Indigenous music.

First Nations, Inuit, and Métis music in Canada is dynamic and diverse, reflecting continuities with earlier traditions and innovative approaches to creating new musical sounds. This book tells a story of resistance and renewal, struggle and success, as Indigenous musicians in Canada negotiate who they are and who they want to be. As a whole, this collection demonstrates how music is a powerful tool for articulating the social challenges faced by Aboriginal communities and an effective way to affirm Indigenous strength and pride.

Premised on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, this book argues that Indigenous peoples have inherent and inalienable rights relating to the collection, ownership and application of data about them, and about their lifeways and territories. The varied group of mostly Indigenous contributors present case studies that illustrate the challenges involved. From Indigenous communities grappling with issues of identity, governance and development, to national governments and NGOs seeking to formulate a response to Indigenous demands for data ownership. While the book is focused on the CANZUS states of Canada, Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and the United States, much of the content and discussion will be of interest and practical value to a broader global audience.

In Braided Learning, Lenape-Potowatomi scholar and educator Susan Dion shares her approach to learning and teaching about Indigenous histories and perspectives. Métis leader Louis Riel illuminated the connection between creativity and identity in his declaration, "My people will sleep for a hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirits back." Using the power of stories and artwork, Dion offers respectful ways to address challenging topics including settler-colonialism, treaties, the Indian Act, residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and the drive for self-determination. Braided Learning draws on Indigenous knowledge to make sense of a difficult past, decode unjust conditions in the present, and work toward a more equitable future.

Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws is a journey through the 10,000-year history of the Interior Plateau nation in British Columbia. Told through the lens of past and present Indigenous storytellers, this volume detail how a homeland has shaped Secwépemc existence while the Secwépemc have in turn shaped their homeland. In addition to a wealth of detail about Secwépemc land stewardship, the social and political order, and spiritual concepts and relations embedded in the Indigenous language, the book shows how between the mid-1800s and 1920s the Secwépemc people resisted devastating oppression and the theft of their land, and fought to retain political autonomy while tenaciously maintaining a connection with their homeland, ancestors, and laws.

Elements of Indigenous Style offers Indigenous writers and editors—and everyone creating works about Indigenous Peoples—the first published guide to common questions and issues of style and process. This guide features: Twenty-two succinct style principles. Advice on culturally appropriate publishing practices, including how to collaborate with Indigenous Peoples, when and how to seek the advice of Elders, and how to respect Indigenous Oral Traditions and Traditional Knowledge. Terminology to use and to avoid. Advice on specific editing issues, such as biased language, capitalization, and quoting from historical sources and archives. Case studies of projects that illustrate best practices.

Indigenous media challenges the power of the state, erodes communication monopolies, and illuminates government threats to Indigenous cultural, social, economic, and political sovereignty. Its effectiveness in these areas, however, is hampered by government control of broadcast frequencies, licensing, and legal limitations over content and ownership. Indigenous Screen Cultures in Canada explores key questions surrounding the power and suppression of Indigenous narrative and representation in contemporary Indigenous media.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists, activists, educators and writers, youth and elders come together to envision Indigenous futures in Canada and around the world. Discussing everything from language renewal to sci-fi, this collection is a powerful and important expression of imagination rooted in social critique, cultural experience, traditional knowledge, activism and the multifaceted experiences of Indigenous people on Turtle Island.

First Nations peoples believe the eagle flies with a female wing and a male wing, showing the importance of balance between the feminine and the masculine in all aspects of individual and community experiences. Centuries of colonization, however, have devalued the traditional roles of First Nations women, causing a great gender imbalance that limits the abilities of men, women, and their communities in achieving self-actualization. Restoring the Balance brings to light the work First Nations women have performed, and continue to perform, in cultural continuity and community development.

Issues of identity figure prominently in Native North American communities, mediating their histories, traditions, culture, and status. This is certainly true of the Mi'kmaw people of Nova Scotia, whose lives on reserves create highly complex economic, social, political, and spiritual realities. This ethnography investigates identity construction and negotiations among the Mi'kmaq, as well as the role of identity dynamics in Mi'kmaw social relationships on and off the reserve.

This unique anthology presents a wide variety of approaches to an ethnomusicology of Inuit and Native North American musical expression. Contributors include Native and non-Native scholars who provide erudite and illuminating perspectives on Aboriginal culture, incorporating both traditional practices and contemporary musical influences. This collection promises to revitalize the study of Native music in North America, an area of ethnomusicology that stands to benefit greatly from these scholars' cooperative, community-oriented methods.

Ask any Canadian what "Métis" means, and they will likely say "mixed race." From its roots deep in the colonial past, the idea of "Métis as mixed" has pervaded the Canadian consciousness until it settled in the realm of common sense. In the process, "Métis" has become a racial category rather than the identity of an Indigenous people with a shared sense of history and culture. Andersen asks all Canadians to consider the consequences of adopting a definition of "Métis" that makes it nearly impossible for the Métis nation to make political claims as a people.

Inuit hunting traditions are rich in perceptions, practices and stories relating to animals and human beings. The authors examine key figures such as the raven, an animal that has a central place in Inuit culture as a creator and a trickster, and qupirruit, a category consisting of insects and other small life forms. They discuss the dog, the companion of the hunter, and fellow hunter, the bear, considered to resemble a human being. By giving precedence to Inuit categories such as ‘inua'(owner) and ‘tarniq'(shade) over European concepts such as ‘spirit ‘and ‘soul', the book compares and contrasts human beings and animals to provide a better understanding of human-animal relationships in a hunting society.

The BC Studies Conference on Intersections: Peoples and Places in British Columbia brings together researchers from across British Columbia and beyond who are working in all areas of study, including sociology, history, law, literature, food policy, tourism, and many more. The program is rich, comprised of a diverse selection of papers, posters, and panels that promise to stimulate fruitful discussion on the many intersections both within and between peoples and places in British Columbia, past and present.

The language of the Secwépemc peoples in the Interior of British Columbia is a language that is considered critically endangered. Current established methods of language revitalization within Secwepemcúl̓ecw focus on community language programming, K-12 public and Band school language classes, and the Chief Atahm immersion school. New language speakers are not emerging from these language programs. To enhance the growth of new speakers new methods of language revitalization are being implemented to augment the dearth of adult speakers. This study aims to explore the effects of the Mentor Apprentice Program model on the development of language and cultural fluency, the methods of language instruction within that model, and a brief exploration of how morphological analysis fits into this picture.

This dissertation is about the history of my people, the Secwépemc. I treat the concept of history here as more than a chronological ordering of events in the lives of our people; my purpose is to construe the sense of history, or historical consciousness, of my people as it emerged during the last 10,000 years. Relying on multiple sources that include converging lines of evidence between geological, archaeological and oral history sources for the early period, and increasingly, written - explorers and traders - sources, and most importantly, my own ancestors' recorded narratives. I argue, such stories, ultimately, need to be connected to our sense of land, livelihood, title and autonomy as an Aboriginal Nation. Our people's stories, as I will show, defy the colonizers' attempts to separate us out into small portions of our land and livelihood, and bring back our sense of nationhood as a people.